allenlovesgreen

House subcommittee OKs pot on D.C. ballot
6/28/09|WashingtonExaminer| by Michael Neibauer



A House appropriations subcommittee has lifted a long-standing budget rider banning the District government from spending any money to decriminalize marijuana.

The Financial Services panel, which has oversight of D.C., has removed from the 2010 budget 11-year-old language outlawing the District’s use of federal or local funds to legalize marijuana or reduce penalties for its possession or distribution.

“This is definitely something we’ve been working with Congress on for a few years now and communicated with the committee about,” said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s taken a while to get it done, but it looks like maybe this will be the year that it happens.”

The financial services budget, marked up Thursday, “takes further steps towards reducing undue congressional interference in local affairs,” Rep. Jose Serrano, the subcommittee chairman, said in a statement.

Serrano, D-N.Y., said the budget bill “allows the District to conduct and implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in various states.”

The District voted on medical marijuana once before, in 1998, but the votes were declared invalid. Former Rep. Bob Barr raced to have his anti-legalization language added to the budget two weeks before the initiative vote was held. When the ballots were unofficially tallied nearly a year after they were cast, it was learned that 69 percent of voters backed legalization.

If added to the ballot now, it will pass again, said Chuck Thies, a political strategist who worked on the 1998 pro-initiative campaign.

“I look forward to it being on the ballot next year,” he said. “I expect there would be a well-funded, well-organized citywide effort for 2010.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrative is firmly against the legalization of medical marijuana, arguing proponents “are spending huge amounts of money to encourage a greater tolerance for drug use.” Smoked marijuana “has not withstood the rigors of science — it is not medicine and it is not safe,” the DEA argues.

The financial services budget bill also eliminates a longtime ban on the use of local funds for abortion, and it discontinues the ban on the use of funds for domestic partnership registration.

Frylok

Good 'ol Bob Barr. I'm glad this unjust nonsense is coming to an end.

SleepyJohn

Te "District of Columbia" may have a population of would be Law Makers,and Politicians, but it's a conservative provenance. The "Important" residences are different There, then "they" are when "they" go back Home, to their constituents. A vote ain't worth a toke, If it is in conflict to the organizers of their election campaign. It's like camp, put there having fun, making the rules of the land. Not to rock the boat, with bothersome "drug" legislation. Of course this is not right, it's the way it is.

Schlazone828

Encourage? Please. There are many types of drugs out there. People will do what they can to get their hands on them.

Name one stoner who has verbally fucked with a DEA agent(s), and I'll retract my previous statement.

In other words, thousands of years in marijuana research doesn't matter to
an organization that refuses to expose it's REAL reality, and not the fantasy land we are currently living under right now.

Marijuana is a huge business. Profit is what keeps the hype, toke, and smoke rollin' for many years to come.

reggie_the_dog

Most of the actual residents of the city are poor, black, and vote on the left. Many politicians in DC do not even live there, they live out in the suburbs! If they put it up to the voters of DC medcial cannabis will surely pass, depenalization of an ounce and a few plants with no penalty could easily pass, and outright legalization is a possibility. this would only effect the city of Washington DC, not the rest of the country.


"Serrano, D-N.Y., said the budget bill “allows the District to conduct and implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in various states.”" It also allows the people of DC to vote on whether or not to depenalize use, cultivation, and sale (like the Netherlands where it is illegal but with no penalty)

allenlovesgreen

Thought you guys would like to watch.